In December 2017, Italian news agency AdnKronos and Xinhua News Agency (新華社) signed a cooperation agreement during the fourth World Internet Conference (世界互聯網大會) in Wuzhen, Zhejiang Province. According to a report by PrimaOnline, the agreement covered news exchange, video production, and digital interconnection between the agencies.
On October 30, 2024, the China Media Group (CMG), the state-run media conglomerate directly under the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Propaganda Department, launched a program showcase in Lima, a promotional event to introduce approximately 20 Spanish-language productions. These include documentaries on Xi Jinping’s signature Belt and Road Initiative, China’s global development and infrastructure push, and a series on a series on Chinese-style modernization — the latter a key part of political framing since the 20th National Congress of the CCP in October 2020. The lineup, which also includes dramas, will be broadcast on Peru’s state-run IRTP and Panamericana Television. Shen Haixiong (慎海雄), CMG president and a deputy head of the Central Propaganda Department, and Gustavo Adrianzén, Peru’s prime minister, both delivered video remarks, with Shen describing the initiative as presenting a “trustworthy, lovable and respectable” China. The showcase fell two weeks before Xi Jinping’s state visit to Lima for the APEC summit, where China inaugurated the 3.6 billion-dollar Port of Chancay and signed an upgraded free trade agreement with Peru.
On November 20, 2024, América TV and the newspaper El Comercio signed a collaboration agreement with China Media Group (中央廣播電視總台), or CMG, the media conglomerate under China’s Central Propaganda Department. The agreement aims to “produce content that appeals to both Peruvian and Chinese audiences,” according to Fernando Muñiz Bethancourt, CEO of América Multimedia. The collaboration includes program exchange, joint production, technology innovation, and personnel training. Specific projects mentioned in the announcement include news exchange, joint film production, joint content broadcasting, and personnel exchange and training. The agreement was signed during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Lima, which took place from November 13-16, 2024. The Chinese delegation was led by Shen Haixiong (慎海雄), the president and editor-in-chief of CMG, who concurrently serves as a deputy director of the Central Propaganda Department.
On May 23, 2025, the Nanfang Media Group (南方報業傳媒集團), a Guangzhou-based state media conglomerate under the provincial CCP Committee, jointly launched a media platform in Lisbon with Guangdong’s South International Communication Center (南方國際傳播中心) and the China-Portugal Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The South International Communication Center editor-in-chief stated that the “Greater Bay Area Chinese-Portuguese Media Content Platform” would collaborate with Portuguese media and think tanks to disseminate “stories of Chinese-style modernization” (中國式現代化故事) as well as stories of China-Portugal cooperation to Portuguese-speaking audiences. The Chinese Ambassador to Portugal attended the event, saying that the platform could help introduce China to Portuguese-speaking countries and vice versa. According to state media reporting, representatives from Iris FM and Global Media Group also participated.
In August 2023, officials from China Media Group visited Portugal’s public broadcaster, RTP (Rádio e Televisão de Portugal), to formalize cooperation on the animated series “O Panda e o Galo” (The Panda and the Rooster), featuring a Portuguese Barcelos rooster and a Chinese panda. During the ceremony, a Letter of Intent was signed between RTP and CMG’s children’s programming department for potential future cooperation projects. The Chinese Ambassador to Portugal characterized the partnership as an opportunity to “strengthen friendship between the two peoples.” The 52-episode animation series aired as part of CMG’s broader initiative featuring international panda-related co-productions with multiple countries, including Russia, New Zealand, and South Africa.
The Lao Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism and China’s state-run People’s Daily (人民日報) co-hosted the Lancang-Mekong River Cooperation Media Summit (瀾滄江—湄公河合作媒體峰會) in Vientiane from July 1-3, 2018. The meeting was held under the theme “Cooperation in Lancang-Mekong Community for a Bright Future” and gathered senior officials and media representatives from six countries along the river system: Laos, China, Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. The summit focused on evaluating the implementation of a joint declaration signed in Beijing the previous year and strengthening cooperation in media, particularly in new media and tourism promotion. The Lancang-Mekong Cooperation initiative, established in 2015 by China with the five Mekong countries, represents a multilateral framework for regional cooperation.
On July 31, 2024, the Chinese Ambassador to Portugal published an op-ed in Portuguese outlets, including the weekly newspaper Diário de Notícias, regional radio station Iris FM, and the Portuguese Journalists Association website, talking about and promoting the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, a policy-setting meeting held in July 2024. The ambassador characterized the reforms introduced at the meeting as creating a “clearer blueprint” and called for deeper integration China-Portugal cooperation. He highlighted the “strong resilience, vitality, and potential” of China-Portugal relations and argued that the reforms would “inject more vitality” into bilateral cooperation.
On October 30, 2023, China Media Group (中央廣播電視總台) hosted a “China-Greece Belt and Road Dialogue” (中國希臘”一帶一路”對話會) in Athens. The event was attended by former Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos, who served as president from 2015 to 2020, China Media Group President Shen Haixiong (慎海雄), who has headed the umbrella state media organization since 2018, Greek Tourism Minister Vasilis Kikilias, who served in that role from August 2021 to March 2023, and Chinese Ambassador to Greece Xiao Junzheng (肖軍正). During the event, CMG signed a cooperation memorandum with Greece’s largest financial media outlet, Shipping and Business News (航運與商業報), covering international news reporting and financial content collaboration. CMG also exchanged an agreement with the Greek satellite platform NOVA to broadcast CGTN English and Documentary channels in Greece. Greek Culture Minister Lina Mendoni (麗娜·門佐尼) announced plans for a comprehensive cooperation memorandum with CMG covering multiple joint cultural projects.
On February 2, 2026, Italian Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli signed a film co-production agreement in Beijing with Shen Haixiong (慎海雄), president of China Media Group and a deputy director of the Central Propaganda Department. The agreement aims to facilitate joint film productions between Italian and Chinese companies, allowing co-produced works to qualify as domestic content in both countries, which might allow Italian co-productions to bypass China’s foreign film quota system. The agreement followed the June 2025 broadcast of the CMG-produced series “Il Guardiano del Patrimonio” across more than 30 Italian media outlets, a production promoting Xi Jinping’s cultural philosophy that was launched at a ceremony in Rome attended by Shen and Italian Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara.